In text to British inquiry, Catholic doctors denounce abortion

Published: 2007-10-16

LONDON (CNS) -- Catholic doctors have called on the British government to reduce the legal gestation period for abortions. In a written submission to a parliamentary committee's inquiry into the 1967 Abortion Act, the Guild of Catholic Doctors said it was opposed to all abortion and pointed out that British society finds late-term abortions in particular to be "abhorrent." The association of Catholic doctors in England and Wales said the abortion of babies with disabilities "creates negative attitudes to all who are disabled when everyone should be accorded equal standing as human beings." In the submission, published in early October, the guild said, "We remain deeply concerned about the use of screening tests to identify children with disabilities before birth when the usual outcome is that the children are killed." Abortion is legal in Britain up to the first 24 weeks of pregnancy if there is a risk to the physical or mental health of the mother. About 98 percent of the 200,000 abortions each year are carried out for such reasons. The remainder, which are allowed up to birth, involve cases of grave risk of permanent injury to the mother or where the baby carries a serious abnormality.

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